Little Bit of Christmas

All the requisite items were prepared for our Family Decorating Night.

We had chips, and cookies, and a homecooked meal first of course.

  

We have just a little bit of space this year but we are packing in as much Christmas spirit as we can.

 

We purchased one of those skinny trees so it would fit in the corner.

I looked when we were last in OTown but I couldn't find the tree topper. Sorry A.

 

I was able to find the Nutcrackers and the Advent Calendar.

 

Wherever we are for Christmas it feels just right after we've decorated.

Leafs

Why all the happy faces this a.m.?

  

They were at a Leafs game last night. We knew that the big guys were going but it wasn't until about 10 minutes before they left for the game that we were able to get tickets for the little guys too.



 

Not Decorating

The conversation went like this.

A: Can we put up the Christmas decorations tonight?

Grnny: Not tonight. I'm going to do that next week.

A: Oh. But those boxes over there have the decorations in them.

Grnny: Yes. I'm going to get to them next week not tonight.

A: But ... can I look in the boxes?
Grnny: Yes. But we're not going to decorate tonight.

A: Hm. O.k. But I can take them out and look at them?

Grnny: Sure. Then you'll know what I'll be dealing with next week.

A: Right. I'll just pile them here. Except maybe this one I'll put over here because it looks good here.

What about this one here Grnny?
Grnny: That looks great.

A: Well where should we put this next one? And this one?

And on and on ... until now there is a tree up and decorations everywhere!

 

And here's where E rests. Watching the hockey game. Wonder where he learned to do that?

 

Oh ... I see.

O Fun

How did I miss a chance to get a picture of the other cousin?
Sorry little A. I'll get you next time.

What a pleasure to see our chess club group.

 

Thursday

 We took an impromptu visit to the Ontario Science Centre on Thursday.
Right in the lobby there was a great area that we spent a load of time in.

  

This area here is supposed to be for kids aged 8 and under. And when we first entered I told E to lay-low and not draw any attention to himself. But it was a quiet mid-Thursday and nobody seemed to mind him in there. Which was a good thing because he was just itching to work the river/dam creation.

 

And when we knew that Granny was approaching the city we scooted him to be there when she arrived.

We'll be in the OTown area this week for another ortho appointment.



Update

Still doing our school thing.

 

One of the advantages of our smart tv is that I can pull up things on the laptop and it wirelessly sends it to the television so we can all see clearly.

Lucky lucky us got a visit from O-Town friends.

And Tuesday night is E cooking night. This week ... mozzarella sticks for an appetizer and then chicken in black beans, corn and salsa with peas.

 

Movember

My normally clean shaven husband is participating in Movember this year.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the 'stache but it's for a good cause.

If you want to support his cause you can go to his Movember Page and donate.

http://ca.movember.com/mospace/9174225

FarmDay

With only one year here in the big city we want to make sure we take advantage of as many opportunities as we possibly can.

We were able to get tickets to the Agricultural Winter Fair.

Great fun .... but oh my goodness the crowds.

The kids LOVED the mechanical bull.

And hey, it was only a half hour wait to ride for 13 seconds.

  

So fun!

  

E has been talking for some time about wanting to get a chicken. So you can imagine his excitement upon seeing the chicks. I found out something new .... he's already named his future chicken.

Terrence.

 

The butter sculptures were on my list of things to see. Seriously, these were so interesting. 

 

The boys were thrilled with the opportunity to touch horses, and cows and goats and sheep.

While I question the agricultural-ness of henna tattooes we couldn't resist.



  

I'm glad we took the chance to see this.

Big Stuff

Great lunch with some gymnastics friends today.
Sushi for all!!

Other big news ... A had his eye appointment and as we suspected he needs glasses for distance.

We got the glasses today so there will be pictures tomorrow.

He is really surprised about how much more clearly he can see distances

On the Menu

E asked me if he could be responsible for dinner on Tuesday nights.

Great idea.
One little problem .... he forgot to tell me what he was going to cook.

(Even though I reminded him on the weekend, and Monday a.m. and evening and Tuesday morning.) M suggested we let him off the hook and order pizza.
Nope. We checked out the fridge and came up with a plan.

Here he is, quite literally, waiting for the pot to boil.

He did a great job.

He served us a meal of basil pesto spaghetti with sundried tomatoes and olives.

Delicious.

TheMoment

This is our fifth year of homeschooling.
By clicking here and here you can look back at the reasons we started and continue on this journey.

Like everything in my life, and I assume everyone else's, homeschooling has not been what I thought it was going to be.

I had visions of earnest excited early readers (1 out of 2), a home free of electronic devices that sap young minds (FAIL), and a space that oozed higher learning (we ooze noise and LEGO more than anything).

It turns out there's not a lot of 'home' in homeschooling and there is lots of getting off track and making a new, previously unplanned track. No complaints here. We love what we do and it's still a great fit for our family and the kids are growing, learning and becoming amazing people.
But the other day we had a moment. And I do sincerely mean a moment .... when I looked out and saw that which I had originally envisioned. It lasted just long enough for me to turn on the camera while they remained unaware and capture about a minute and a half of it for prosperity.

I figure we complete about 200 'teaching' days each school year. We've done four full years, that's 800 days, and all of September and October, that's another 60 days.

So after 860 teaching days in our homeschool life ..... I bring you ..... the moment.

Just for the record .... I prefer the way we do it.
One of these every 860 days seems about right to me.
What was new-homeschooling-me thinking??

Speck

Strange pictures?

These are pictures of my E walking across the street ... by himself ...

to get some poster paper from the Dollar Store.

See how far away from me he is in these pictures!?!